Aim To optimise the education of medical students in the emergency department (ED).

Methods Fourth year medical students, undertaking an emergency medicine rotation in a major trauma centre as part of an acute care programme, were prospectively surveyed over one year. Electronic questionnaire feedback provided a focus for interventions which were implemented as part of plan-do-study-act cycles. There were two interventions over three subsequent cohorts. Cohort A was our control group. Cohort B received a structured, formal induction to the ED. Cohort C were assigned a specialist emergency medicine trainee mentor. The project was led by a medical student undertaking an undergraduate BSc working in collaboration with an emergency medicine consultant and specialist trainee, all of whom passionate about leading improvement in medical education.

Results Thirty eight of 48 fourth year medical students gave feedback on their ED rotation during the 2016–2017 academic year. The number of students citing ‘a lack of knowledge of where to go within the department and what to do in each part’decreased from 7/15 (46.7%) in cohort A to 0/12 in cohort B. The number of students who were ‘unsure as who best to approach’decreased from 9/27 (33.3%) in cohort A and B combined, to 2/11 (18.2%) in cohort C. The number of students citing any problem in their ED rotation decreased from 13/15 (86.7%) in cohort A to 5/12 (41.7%) in cohort B and 5/11 (45.5%) in cohort C.

Conclusion Providing medical students in the ED with a structured, formal induction and by assigning ED mentors results in sustained improvement in feedback and can be used as a model to optimise medical education. The low-cost nature of the interventions and the ready availability of trainees, also wanting to contribute to their own teaching portfolios, makes this model easily replicable across all types of EDs.